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NCAAB Picks

Kansas will have Revenge along with a 14th straight Big 12 Conference title on its mind while host Texas Tech will be looking to protect a 16-0 Home Record and stay in the Conference race in a nationally televised showdown Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena with ESPN and GameDay in town in Lubbock. Let’s look at the odds and offer up picks for this game which has seen the Home team go 20-8 ATS the L28 series meetings.

#8 Kansas heads to United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas to face #6 Texas Tech (in a huge Big 12 Conference showdown on Saturday afternoon. Offshore sportsbooks opened up Texas Tech as small 2-point Favorites over the visiting Jayhawks with the Total at 142 for this game which will see the ESPN College GameDay crew take up residency in Hub City. Kansas heads into the game on a 3-game SU Win Streak and an 11-4 mark in Conference play with Texas Tech 10-5 in Big 12 play and losers of 2 straight games SU/ATS (OK-ST, BAY).

#8 Kansas Jayhawks

Head Coach Bill Self and Kansas head into this game off an extremely impressive Offensive performance on Monday night against Oklahoma, as the Jayhawks thumped the Sooners at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, 104-79, easily covering ATS as 8½-point Home Favorites as sparkplug Graham finished with a game-high 23 points and Malik Newman added 20 (O, 165½). Self and Kansas also got double-digit scoring from his other three starters, Lagerald Vick (17 points), Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (16 points) and Udoka Azubuike (10 points) while Bench players Marcus Garrett (14 points) and Silvio De Sousa (13 points) also had a productive day in limited minutes to help the Jayhawks reach the 100-point mark for the first time since December. Kansas led 49-38 at Halftime and then ran away with the victory and ATS cover outscoring the slumping Sooners with a 55-35 2nd Half.

The jayhawks are 7-2 SU on the Road in Big 12 play, 9-4 ATS its L13 Road games, 9-4 ATS the L13 vs. Teams with Winning Home Records and 4-3 in Day games but Kansas are 1-4 ATS the L5 Saturdays and facing a team that hasn’t lost at Home yet this Regular Season. The Under is 7-2 the L9 Kansas games against the Big 12, 57-26-3 the L86 Jayhawks Road games (66.7%) and 7-3 their L10 overall.

#6 Texas Tech Red Raiders

Texas Techare a perfect 16-0 SU at Home and 9-1 SU during the Day, so all signs would point to taking the upstart Red Raiders here until you remember that Texas Tech finally won for the first time ever in Lawrence last month, 85-73, as Keenan Evans (15 points), Norense Odiase (12 points) and Justin Gray (12 points) led then-#18 Texas Tech to the big upset. After W7 in a row SU and covering 4 straight ATS, the Red Raiders have L2 in a row SU and ATS, on the Road at Baylor, 59-57 (TT -1, U, 132½) and at Oklahoma State, 79-71 (TT -3½, O, 141½) in two games which found Texas Tech in the betting role of small Road chalks. West Virginia (20-8 SU, 9-6 in Big 12) and Kansas State (20-8 SU, 9-6 in Big 12, W3) are the two closest teams to Kansas and Texas Tech (9 KenPom.com Top 50 Wins, 1 sub-45 Loss) in the Big 12 Conference standings heading into pivotal play this weekend, with the perennially powerful Jayhawks eyeballing their 14th straight Big 12 Conference crown.

Looking at some of the recent and relevant Trends for this Saturday game matchup we see that upstart Texas Tech (#10 KenPom.com ranking) is 6-1 ATS the L7 Home Games Against Teams With Winning Road Records and 4-0 ATS the L4 vs. Teams with SU Winning Records. The Under is 9-1 in the L10 Saturday dribbles for the surging Red Raiders, 12-5 their L17 vs. the Big 12 and the Under is 18-8 their L26 games overall. The Under is also 5-1 the L6 series meetings in Lubbock and with visiting Kansas remembering the Red Raiders spurting out to a near-20-point lead in Lawrence, expect Self to have his squad focusing more on Defense from the opening jump ball.

Home Team a Powerful 20-8 ATS L28 in Series in This Growing Big 12 Basketball Rivalry

Even with the historic upset by Texas Tech in the first meeting this Regular Season, the Home team is a dominating 20-8 ATS the L28 in this series and the hosts will be staging a “BlackOut” game meaning Black uniforms and a Black-clad throng in the United Supermarkets Arena in the Lone Star State to yell loudly at the bad guys from Kansas who come in threatening three precious things to this Texas Tech team: 1—Its’ current ranking (AP) above Kansas (#6 to #8)—the highest AP ranking in school history; 2—Evans (17.2 ppg) and the Red Raiders undefeated 16-0 mark on its precious Home-court in Lubbock; 3—And, of course, the fight for the Big 12 Conference title with a Texas Tech Win on Saturday afternoon leaving both teams with 11-5 Records while a Red Raiders Loss pretty much meaning basketball behemoths Kansas will be crowned Big 12 kings for a 14th straight season.

This one should play out like a Conference or NCAA Tournament game with so much at stake, but expect the Home crowd and expectations to help Texas Tech immensely with any questionable calls likely going the hosts way. With that 20-8 ATS Home team Trend the L28 games in this series (71.4%) and the Under 5-1 the L5 in Lubbock, balancing the Favorites and the Under for small amounts seems the best approach in a game that could come down to one good 2nd Half run for the ultimate winners.